4 ideas
After King Gyanendra seized direct power in February 2005, the Maoists and the Seven Party Alliance, formerly enemies, signed a 12-point understanding in New Delhi in November 2005. Indian officials and intelligence knew of and facilitated the talks. The deal united the rebels and the parliamentary parties against the palace, led to the April 2006 people's movement that ended royal rule, and set the path toward abolishing the monarchy in 2008.
For years India's policy on Nepal rested on 'twin pillars': constitutional monarchy and multiparty democracy. When the king's coup made the palace an unreliable partner, Delhi dropped that doctrine and backed a Maoist-party front that led to a republic. Sharma argues that India's tolerance of Maoist leaders living on Indian soil during the insurgency gave it a card it could play whenever the palace or the parties strayed from its interests.
The title 'Prayogshala' means 'laboratory'. It frames Nepal as a place where outside powers test arrangements such as armed insurgency, peace deals, republicanism and federalism, while domestic actors act out experiments whose terms were partly set elsewhere. Seen this way, apparently internal turning points become points where foreign strategy and local ambition met, and where each side used the other.
In May 2009, Maoist Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal (Prachanda) tried to sack army chief Rookmangud Katawal, largely over the integration of Maoist fighters into the army. President Ram Baran Yadav reinstated Katawal, the move had India's backing, and Prachanda resigned. The episode shows that the power which helped bring the Maoists into mainstream politics would also block them from taking control of the state's coercive institutions.